- Not talking (much): Dallas Green didn`t want to get into...

July 23, 1989|By Paul Sullivan.

- Not talking (much): Dallas Green didn`t want to get into it. When the Yankees` manager was asked in Comiskey Park Wednesday whether he felt he deserves some credit for the Cubs` recent success, Green grinned, leaned back in his chair and said he didn`t want to talk about the organization, which fired him after the 1987 season.

He then added: ``What we left here is better than what we started with. I`m proud of that.`` Green said most of the credit for drafting the likes of Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith, Greg Maddux, Damon Berryhill and Mark Grace belonged to his former employees Gordon Goldsberry, Charlie Fox and Hugh Alexander. Only Alexander remains with the Cubs` organization. Have they gotten due credit?

(fans) was before we got there. Now they have a steady 2 million, and they`re recognized as an organization to be dealt with and an organization with a lot of pride.``

Green then went on to question why Chicago fans have such deep-rooted feelings for the 1969 Cubs. ``I still can`t believe people here respect losing that much,`` he said.

By the way, Green doesn`t want to talk about it.

- A long, cool one: Minnesota`s Kent Hrbek on the opposite-field home run he hit in the Metrodome Thursday night: ``I hit it hard, and the air conditioner was blowing the right way.``

- Will they wilt?: A few weeks ago, Boston manager Joe Morgan calmly predicted the Baltimore Orioles will ``fade away.`` Going into the weekend, the Orioles still had a comfortable lead in the AL East. Detroit manager Sparky Anderson said it`s time the rest of the division took Baltimore seriously. ``Toronto is only team with the talent to do it, and they`re not doing it,`` said Anderson. ``The Orioles will pitch with anyone, they`ll play defense with anyone, so why does everyone think they`re going to collapse? If they play .500 the rest of the way, I think they`ve got it.`` If the Orioles do play .500, they`d finish at 88-74. To pass the Orioles, their next closest pursuer, New York, would have to play at a .623 clip (43-26).

- A guy with clout: Two reporters were in the Yankees` locker room at Comiskey Park Wednesday talking about Joe Carter`s two-homer game the night before. Out of the blue, Mel Hall, Carter`s former teammate in Chicago and Cleveland, chimed in: ``I talked to Joe this morning.``

Carter has said publicly that he doesn`t want to spend his career in Cleveland, and Hall agreed his buddy will be gone once his contract expires after the 1990 season. Would free agent Carter be interested in returning to the North Side if the money was right? ``No,`` Hall said emphatically. ``He doesn`t like day games.`` How about Kansas City, where Carter hails from? Hall smiled and walked off.

- War of words: New York`s Luis Polonia, three weeks after being traded by Oakland in the Rickey Henderson deal: ``I`m going to make people forget about Rickey Henderson and I`m doing that right now. You don`t hear people talk about him anymore. I`m young. I play for the team. I`m not a selfish player.`` Your turn, Rickey.

``Tell him I`m a legend,`` he said. ``There`s no forgetting me. I don`t want to talk on Luis. He may have been misquoted, figuring it was New York and all. If he said he`s going to make people forget about me, there must be something wrong with him.``

- The numbers game:The numbers game: Kansas City`s Bill Pecota hit three home runs in a double-header against the Yankees last week. In his previous 382 at- bats, he had a total of four homers. . . . Only five teams since 1900 have improved their winning percentage by .200 or more in one season. Going into Sunday`s game, Baltimore had improved by .223 (.335 to .558). The team with the largest improvement was the 1903 New York Giants, who upped their percentage by .241.

- On the beat: Before the All-Star break, slumping Texas slugger Pete Incaviglia was hitting .215 with only 6 homers. In his first seven games after the break, he was 9 for 24 with 3 homers and 12 RBIs. The difference?

Incaviglia went back to the all-or-nothing swing from his Oklahoma State days. ``If it`s not good enough to keep me here, that`s okay,`` he said. ``I gave it a shot. I just want to hit the ball as hard and as far as I can. So far, things are working out.``